23 January 2024
These conversations will center around questions and concerns that we have following the decade-long mobilisations for change. We are interested to assess the state of these efforts, foregrounding the perspectives of some of its main proponents. What were the promises of, as well as the problems faced with, such attempts at decolonisation? What were the risks and the opportunities? We frame our inquiry through the lens of exhaustion, or burn-out, to first and foremost acknowledge and explore the vulnerability of those involved in these demands for change. Indeed, (infra)structural resistance to change, whether through practices of gaslighting or denialism, micro aggression or outright racism, have had psychological and physical effects on those pushing for change. We see many cases where both those doing the (emotional) labour outside the institution, as well as those (brought) inside, are placed in positions of impossibility, leading in some instances to exhaustion, even burnout. What forms of caring and careful work is needed to support those pushing for creating more just and equitable institutions for all?
